The Bell Tolls
by MelliCorynne
Summary: Ending spoilers. With Etro's gate obliterated and the Unseen world cast over the world of the living, the Maker has awoken. He seeks to destroy Mwynn, who has been consumed by the chaos that pervades the world. Everyone else is caught in the crossfire.
1. INTRODUCTION: The Maker's Awakening

THE BELL TOLLS

I enjoyed XIII-2 and the mythology behind it quite a bit, but I was dissatisfied with the cliffhanger ending if only because I can't stand waiting. With that said, this fanfic is an attempt at bringing the story to a close. The mythos of Fabula Nova Crystallis may not be completely accurate here, but I'm taking a few creative liberties. Bear with me! I'll also be switching points of view between different characters, so be prepared for that abrupt change once the time comes.

INTRODUCTION: THE MAKER'S AWAKENING

It was, indeed, somewhat amusing to observe the humans in their efforts to change what we already decreed. Mere accidents borne from self mutilation, they had no real place among us in our world. Yet who were we to obliterate them? They were the perfect tools for our ultimate goal. Our twisted sister attempted to give them the power to fight us, but in the end we used them against her. By human hands, we plunged a sword through her heart and ripped the gate open wide. Time did not matter at this point; victory was upon us, and there was but one thing left to do.

Footsteps echoed through the empty, darkened halls of my master's home. This place had not seen life in millenniums, but the surfaces were not coated with dust, the decor not any less vivid than the moment I left him here. It felt strange to walk again- too human, and I didn't like the feeling. Anticipation settled on my chest as I finally reached the doorway to my master's chambers.

His crystalline face was illuminated by an unnatural light; I knew this not to be sunlight, as it had been blotted out by the chaos just moments before. But these chambers were far beyond human reach or chaos, in a realm that only we knew of.

I placed a hand on his shoulder, and that same unnatural light emitted from my arm and to his crystal form; slowly his body began to release from this crystal slumber, his chest rising and falling with life. With what we hoped would be eternal life.

"Welcome back, Bhunivelze."

His complacent smile was devoid of any emotion or reflection of thought. His eyes eventually met mine, and the satisfaction behind them was chilling. I smiled in return, though mine was undoubtedly submissive. Already I fell to my knees, my eyes to the ground.

"Thank you, Lindzei." The voice of our Maker rang through the hallways, and internally I both rejoiced and panicked; he was, once again, awake. And he wouldn't relent until he had immortality in his possession.

* * *

><p>A lot of this is derived from the way I interpreted a lot of the mythology behind Final Fantasy XIII. I may not have grasped some of the parts the way I should have, but again, I've taken some creative liberties with it. If you haven't already read it, look up "Fabula Nova Crystallis Mythology" on youtube! Uploading chapter one here in a bit, so be on the lookout for chapter two!<p> 


	2. CHAPTER ONE: The Knife

CHAPTER ONE - THE KNIFE

Cocoon's collapse was so fresh that crystalline dust swirled through the air, tangling with wisps of chaos. With every breath, that mixture swirled even more, the blackness of that smoke blotting out the brightness of the crystal until it finally settled, in a thick cloud of gray, on my glove.

I jerked my hand away, shaking off the dust as if it was poisonous. In a way, the chaos had already found its way into our systems in the form of despair, but what else could we feel in the wake of the end of days? Our eyes were empty, our thoughts a constant loop of what else we could have done, our hearts torn apart by the idea that we brought this upon ourselves. Had we? Perhaps we'd been mere tools; we all knew Caius had been present throughout our pasts and our futures, yet not once did he attempt to slay any of us before we set out on our journeys to begin with.

Some of us were willing to believe that had to do with Yeul's insistence on keeping true to the timeline, but we knew he'd already manipulated the timeline to begin with, creating paradoxes that would lead up to the destruction of the world as we knew it. It was undeniable that Caius wanted us alive, if only to use us.

And here was his outcome, present all around me; I wondered if my years of hard work had only been a prologue to what he wanted in the end. All of this hope I clung to was useless, wasted away as Gran Pulse and our new world, Bhunivelze, was consumed by the chaos of Valhalla.

I ran my hand along the form of her crystalline arm, wiping away the coats of gray that had already settled over it. Underneath, she was simultaneously translucent and bright, though her expression read otherwise. Lightning Farron's expression betrayed not a hint of emotion, even in the final breath she took before turning to crystal.

"Why?" I whispered to no audience but the accompanying chaos. Part of me wondered if it was sentient; when I was at my worst, it seemed to convolute thickly around me in dark swirls. Perhaps it was drawn that part of me, and while I wanted to close it out, it was all too easy to let it settle.

"Why would you tell me to have hope?" I asked her unmoving figure. My mind flashed through the times we spent together, when she reminded me countless times to hold onto hope. To find the hope I was named for. That hope was what kept me going in the end, even after she, Vanille, and Fang were swallowed up in that pillar of crystal, even after everyone I came to call family disappeared from my life. I had continued forward, throwing myself into my studies. That hope she gifted me with transformed into determination, and I fought for change. For the opportunity to see them all again.

But underneath that bitterness was something else entirely. A part of me wished I could have done more, and in the wake of this awful situation, it was only natural to shift the blame. "Why did you see everyone else? Snow, Serah- you came to them in their dreams. You spoke to Noel and Serah in person. But why not me? I could have-"

Could I have done anything? The answer came swiftly, and I turned my face from her crystalline features and instead to Sazh's airship in the distance. Nothing could stop fate; Noel and Serah were proof of that. Despite their best attempts, they only managed to bring the inevitable about with their own hands. Perhaps the prophecies had merely dictated our actions after all.

While I'd aged even more than the others, there was a part of me that was still that fourteen year old boy, cowering in the corner. It would be so easy to revert back to that in the midst of this crisis, to question the unfortunate series of events that led me here. But just as that hope I'd built up was threatening to shatter around me, a glint caught my eye. I reached out involuntarily, both curious and in need of guidance, and once my hand closed around it, my throat closed up.

There, in my hand, was the knife she'd given me. An object, seemingly so mundane, that held far too much meaning for myself, for Serah, and for her. Despite my attempts to fight it, her words rang in my ears even years later. She promised to protect me. And she had- she had until she couldn't anymore. I had promised the same to her back then, hadn't I? And yet here we were, my new world floating in the sky without power, without any semblance of a future.

That knife held so much memory, though, that it was hard to believe this world was really as empty as it seemed. I opened the knife and observed its shining blade, my stomach twisting in knots as I remembered her face reflected in it. Perhaps there was a way to fix this. And that cycle of rebirth began in me again- that hope returned, and I closed the knife, tucked it away, and made my way back to the airship.

I didn't notice, but the chaos shied away from me in those moments of hope.

The mood on the ship was just as dismal as I'd left it. While the energy rising up within me couldn't compare to how I'd been before, it was still a bright contrast to the people surrounding me. I'd come back with intentions of spreading hope, but upon seeing their expressions, my resolve faltered. For a minute I studied each of them, unable to speak.

They'd all been sapped of any life they retained. This chaos- it seeped into our very core and ripped what we had left away from us. I tightened my grip around the knife, swallowing back the grief that threatened to surface.

"So what did Miss Soldier look like up close, huh? Same old crystal as Fang and Vanille?" Sazh asked; he was the only one of them who could muster up enough energy to feign interest. I appreciated the attempt at humor, but even I could hear the bitterness behind his voice. When I'd brought up going to see her, none of them voiced interest. None of them would even look me in the eye.

"Yes," I answered simply, unable to think of anything else to say. For a moment I treasured that knife in my hand, that private surge of hope I'd felt upon seeing its gleaming blade. But it didn't last long, as soon I displayed it. "I found this."

Noel and Snow didn't even bother looking over; I wasn't sure why expected any differently. But I did, at least, expect Sazh to care a little more than he did. "Ah, the old knife. I wonder how that got there."

I was quiet for a moment, shifting my weight from one leg to another as my eyes flitted over each of the faces in the room. They had all accepted their fate- they had all accepted the idea of living in a world with no future, no hope, no life or death. They had accepted the life of a Cie'th, when you looked at it that way.

"I think she left it for us," I said, and those words sounded wrong even to me, even if I believed them. It felt like walking into a funeral and announcing a birth, which wasn't so far from the truth; Snow's silence as he held Serah's lifeless hand was deafening. I told myself not to look over at them, but caught myself staring.

Regardless, no one bothered to answer me, and in my desperation, I spouted off the first thing that came to mind. "It's not over. If there's a way to fix this, then-"

"There isn't a way to fix it," Noel's hostile voice came; as my eyes met with his, I didn't see the comrade I'd come to know over the past few weeks. "It _is _over. The goddess is dead. Serah is dead. There isn't a future to change or protect anymore. We failed." Neither of them backed him up, but I could see it in their expressions- or in Snow's case, the way his shoulders slumped, his back turned to me- that they agreed.

"Do you think Serah or Lightning would say that if they were here? Or Fang and Vanille? Do you think they would give up?" I recalled the way Serah hung onto the idea that Lightning was still alive- I recalled to the way Lightning didn't sit down and accept her fate as a l'Cie. And, of course, I recalled the final sacrifice Fang and Vanille made for the people of Cocoon, even if it wasn't their home.

My words held truth, even if they reached deaf ears; Sazh, at least, looked up with an eyebrow quirked, his breath rushing through his teeth. "I don't know what they'd do, kid. The other three are encased in crystal. Looks like hope didn't get them very far, did it?"

There were times- like now- that I hated that my name was Hope. Part of that felt like an insult, and I had to remind myself that he didn't mean me in particular, but it didn't help. The thought still stung like a fresh wound, and I had to look away for a few moments to regain my composure. Again I opened the knife and observed my reflection, just as dismal as any of theirs, though perhaps tinged with frustration.

"I'm going to fight anyway," I told them, my expression serious as I looked up at them. "You all can stay here and wait for Fang and Vanille to wake, but I'm-"

"I'm going with you," came Snow's voice, and in my surprise, I fell silent.


End file.
